I have knit my soon to be son a sweater and a pair of booties. I attempted to knit him a blanket but I decided that a blanket is just too big of a project for me...yesterday I started on a hat. He will need a hat when he is still in the hospital and I do not like those ones they give you that are pink and blue striped. So I'm knitting a hat that I will prolly have to rip out because I think its too small even tho I swatched......whatever. The good, exciting news, the whole reason I am making this post is I figured it out! I figured out how to avoid laddering while knitting in the round with DPN's! yay! it's been a year since I started knitting and I have tried on many occasions to solve this issue I even did the technique where you switch the stitches to different needles...nothing worked until now! I am so happy. PS this is my baby #2 belly at 27 weeks

I think I just don't really have the desire to knit these things I have to knit...the baby blanket is beautiful but boring and I have to start a christmas gift but I am having trouble finding yarn I like for it...I know hard to believe right?

its been 5 years since I was pregnant and time has erased a lot of those memories from me but I do remember wanting to write things down for the baby so I could share them later and I didn't! and now I have a blog a perfect place to save these memories and all I did was sleep the whole time lol! Well we had a sonogram and the baby is a boy we expect him to arrive in February. Still no name yet Matt and I are having trouble agreeing on one :)

so some news for you. 1 I'm a lazy blogger. 2.I'm preggo...yup I'll be 12 weeks tomorrow I really hope it sticks I'm very excited 3. LG was in a swim class and she passed the first session tonight! It's 6 weeks per session and in level 1 they learn to stick their face in the water and how to properly enter a pool and how to behave around a pool. I am impressed because this time last year at my in-laws LG was on an inflatable water thing they have and every time she would get her face wet she would get out and dry her face off and today I watched her continuously plunge her face under the water over and over and over again. Anyhow I've just been sleeping for the last 6 weeks, sleeping and eating with very little knitting oh and some working I guess lol!

I have told this story so many times, I am so proud! So on Tuesday LG went to a little league game one of her friends was in and came home with a tick on her belly. Now I want to mention that we have had a lot of meltdowns. She is a drama queen and has flipped over having a splinter or her dress not laying right or her socks not matching and of course there was the great foot peeling fiasco of 2007. So she has tick and she tries to pull it off like it's just a piece of lint or something and starts to flip about how it won't come off. So I tell her it's just a mosquito, mosquito's like to drink really fast and ticks like to drink really slow and hang out for some time, and she's whimpering and whining. Matt comes in and soothes her and tells me to find some nail polish, we paint the tick with nail polish and he comes right out...into a tissue and into the toilet. It was nothing! easy peasy! no huge meltdown or anything. The whole experience was just awesome!

So we got a letter from the school Lg didn't make it into kindergarten...which of course means their standards are just set to high. I know that is such a Mommy thing to say but she got a 112 on her IQ test (the normal range is 90 to 105) but she needed a 130 to be considered for early admittance. I know there are kids out there who are turning 5 this month that won't score that high I just know it. I don't think I will ever finish my mom's purse lol!!! I frogged the socks for the 5th time I have decided that I don't like that yarn and I put it in the bottom of my stash. Today I cast on a pair with a different yarn so lets see how that goes.

My little girl came in to see you on Tuesday, I still have not received word as to how she did on her test. I'm wondering if you could let me know when I should expect to hear from you. I was under the understanding that this whole process needed to be finished by June 10th and by my count there are only 13 days of school left until then. Please contact me as soon as possible. Thank you.

So last week I was on vacation. I really haven't gotten that much knitting done. I'm still plugging away at my mom's purse but it's like 200 sts a round and the cable twists are on every 5th round so for the rest of the time it's just p4, k6 over and over and over. We celebrated our first anniversary this weekend! Just saying that makes me feel old, lol. It wasn't too eventful except we went to the beach with some friends for a few days. LG had her IQ test today, they couldn't give me the results yet but my guess is that she will score right on where a child her age should or just a little higher but not quite enough to be admitted to Kindergarten early.oh well whatever. I have to get that infant hat started but I keep casting it on and then ripping it right out :)

LG had her "Early admission to Kindergarten" meeting today. They told that of the children who go through this process only 2% are successful. wow, those are some tough odds but we have been waiting for this so we are going to trudge on. First she has to take an IQ test and score 130 (i think) if she doesn't than we stop and if she does then she needs to take a reading and math test again if she fails we stop if not then she will take the environmental portion of the test. The good news is that all of this will be done before the end of the school year which is only slightly more than a month away. Cross your fingers for me, I think if she doesn't make it I will have to put her in some program...she definitely needs some structured time away from me for a few hours a week.

so I like to knit small things so I can practice before I attempt to knit the big ones. So I made this sweater. It's newborn sized....don't get excited I'm not pregnant. I made the sweater now I just have to make a baby to go in it! (haha I made a joke) alright enough of that. I plan on making a hat and booties and a blanket to match...yay fun! I may even make a whole set in yellow too. I'm struggling with the hat because I am trying to find patterns that are free or that are at the library but they have to use DK yarn and have to be knit on size 6 and I have to be able to put ribbing on it. I cast on 72 sts but it wasn't big enough...not quite sure how big a newborns head is but it barely fit on a baby doll. oh well I have PLENTY of time to get it right!

So they finally arrived on Friday..(future reference orders from China take 18 days) and I have been busy playing with them so I haven't blogged lol it's ok I won't forget about you. So they are smaller then I thought they would be I have to remember that the 6mm measurement must be the outside diameter. But this is cool, I was looking for a storage solution so I could carry a few around and I found this magnetic key holder that I think is meant to stick under your car. It works wonderfully see how there are magnets on the sides at the bottom? well they all stick there. I think it's great. anyway so I thought 6mm would fit on US size 8 because they are 5.5 mm but they didn't so I had to move my mom's purse to the US size 6 (4 mm) circ's that I have. I was half way thru row 8, there were 120 sts a row when I realized that I had it twisted and had to frog it last night. NP tho I will re-cast it today. I hope you don't mind that I stopped doing Japanese on Wednesday it's just that I didn't know what word to do next. That's about it xcept I have vacation next week and our first anniversary in 12 days.

No silly not the rings from China..it's only been 17 days why would you think that? A letter! a letter from the schools! Saying that LG has an interview next Friday morning. I know you're just as excited as I am. Apparently we have to meet with the principal, the school psychologist and a reading resource specialist. I can't wait

This weekend we went out of town and I was supposed to drive my crossover and my hubby was gonna ride with his step-father who was driving our pick-up....well then my FIL tells me we are going to take 495 and i said "oh, no I am not driving on 495" so Hubby drove the crossover and I passengered with him.....It was so scary I had my eyes closed more than half the time! My FIL was towing a trailer behind the pickup and we were following him until some one cut us off and I got so freaked I was thinking what if this idiot slams on his breaks and we don't have time and we slam into him and it sends him slamming into the pickup....then I would have to call my insurance company and explain to them how we crashed our crossover into our pickup. I could just imagine telling the phone rep that and him asking me to hold so he could get his supervisor, then I am asked to repeat the story and it turns out that I wasn't transferred at all...they just put me on speakerphone and the whole office is laughing at me. I am never going near 495 again.

So I won a third auction off ebay from China...I bought a bunch of dpns for really cheap. They sent me a letter saying that the shipped but it will take 20 days to get here!!! so it's only been 10 days since I bought the jump rings.... I think the Internet is bad for me, always being so instant gratification and stuff. Leaves me with no patience to wait for 20 days. Sometimes I wonder how I ever waited 38 weeks for LG. Yea she was 13 days early, lol I was supposed to work that day. I remember I was at work on Tuesday and I was dancing even (one of the many perks of working with kids you can act as silly as you like and no one cares) and one of my co-workers told me that I shouldn't because of the baby and she was born less than 24 hours after that. Thank fully my labor was short and my baby was small. I hope to be as lucky next time lol.

I've haven't really gotten anywhere on my mom's purse...I don't know how long it will take for the rings to get here from China. Now I know that I don't have very many memories from my childhood ( i don't know why but I just don't remember those things) but while I was cleaning yesterday I thought to myself "wow, I don't remember my mom cleaning as much as this place needs me to clean it." ok so I realize that she had a dishwasher where I do not but the constant vacuuming and putting the clothes away and wiping down the tables, the counters and the stove! It's crazy but you know what the other week right after I stripped my kitchen spotless it was so nice to just be able to get up and walk into the kitchen and make my breakfast on a nice open counter. I have always wondered why people make their beds when they are just going to lay in them in about 12-14 hours. Well the other day Hubby made the bed and I opened the bedroom door and it just looked so inviting.....o it was nice :)

goodness I have been to sicky to have the desire to sit in front of the computer. But you have to hear this. I need better stitch markers I have been using hair bands and it is just not working out. So I went on ebay looking for cheap stitch markers that were pretty to look at and effective. So I found these heavy metal jump rings that I suppose were being sold to someone who wanted to make thier own chain mail or something cuz they were being sold in sets of 5000! So I wrote the seller a letter requesting to buy only 500 or so. It turns out that the seller is from China and his solution was to start a brand new 7 day auction for 500 rings with no buyout. So I had to wait a week and I got outbid! I could buy 5000 rings for $11.00 or 500 rings for $8.00. So of course I bought the bigger lot. Let me know if you want any lol. Yesterday I had off work so I knit Matt a new case for his Iphone well guess what? this time it is too small! It almost, almost fits. blah whatever so now he just needs to get back in line cuz I need to finish my mom's purse and some toeless socks for me. You can wait buster!!! Also I took LG to register for Kindergarten today and all I did was fill out an application for early admittance and know I have to wait until May for the next step

So I've been thinking this over for a while now. I have decided that I am going to go off food. That's it no more eating. No really it is a good idea. Do you have any idea how food rules our lives? First off there is an entire room in every one's home devoted to food. There are a bunch of appliances designed to simply cook only one type of food like the popcorn maker or the waffle maker. Also I eat 5 smalls meals a day so that's at least 50 minutes a day spent on food preparation , 100 minutes a day on food consumption and who knows how many minutes spent on clean up. If we never ate we would never have to wash dishes. And here for those Green lovers....you don't need an oven or a fridge any more WOW imagine the energy that would save. So I'm getting rid of my kitchen I'm going to turn it into a study I think. Oh and I almost forgot if we don't eat then we don't need toilets either. I'm so excited I'm gonna start right now, no more food for me........................................................................................................Man, I wish I could have some sushi right now. Hey I tried!

So my backup glasses are broken, i am stuck wearing my contacts all day everyday or being blind. I was sewing together or "finishing" the animals when I got bored and put them aside, I started a purse for my mom which I'm sure will bore me at some point at which time I will get those blasted animals done. I actually like how the upper body and lower body pieces came together, I was so scared that it wouldn't work but SURPRISE! it did. I also got rained on today with 2 babies and a four year old in tow lol.

Well here it is, my finished intarsia. Apparently I can't follow directions because it was supposed to be two rows of the pattern and I only did one, tho I don't know how it would have fit if I had read the directions. So I was supposed to make two triangles like this and five circles well the triangles were easy cuz they were decreased but I couldn't do the circles...I think it's because they had increases in the middle of the intarsia. So I made the snout light pink and I haven't decided what to do for the foot pads I think I might stripe them.

No big deal but I wound my first hank into a ball today, what is even more exciting is I'm going to try to use that yarn for intarsia.....scary! So I have most of the cat and pig finished I just have to knit the feet pads and stuff. I am going to do the cat ones solid colored since he is knit out of variegated yarn, but the pig's are "country checks" so I have to teach myself how to switch colors in the middle of a row.

Well there was a small chance that I would get pregnant in March but I didn't. It's ok I know we are offically trying in June so I have that to look forward to. Hubby said "aww, I'm sorry" when he found out we weren't pregnant. I'm not sure how he will react when we really are with this being his first and all. We'll see. So I have been working on those knit stuffed pigs and it told me to put stitch markers in and I didn't understand why so I took them off....Well I need them now. When I "finishing" the animal I have to line the stitch markers up so I don't know what I'm going to do now LOL we will see. Also I got alot of compliments on my purse this weekend so of course it would decide to fall apart on Saturday night. I tried to mend it but Idk if it will stay.....

So over the past 3 days I have cleaned 2 and a half rooms...you should have seen my kitchen. I have a double sink and both sinks were overflowing with dishes, the floor was dirty, the cook top, the counter top even the table dirty dirty dirty. There was no space at the table to eat. So I went in there and clean just about every last dish I own. I filled up the drying rack 4 times! Next the counter top which was covered in appliances, it went like this blender, toaster, rice cooker, deep fryer and then popcorn maker, coffee maker and waffle maker...Idk but maybe the makers had a top secret meeting cuz they were all to the left, weird I know. So I said "NO!" and but every last one of those guys under the sink...well except for the deep fryer cuz he is full of old yucky oil and just ewww. So then I scrubbed the counters and the cook top and the table. Hubby cleaned the floor and "woo, that smells clean." Happily the bathroom was easier simply because it is smaller (we don't have to go into the details you know what it takes to clean a bathroom) and again Hubby cleaned the floor! yay! now we have moved onto the bedroom. Look ok I'm just gonna come right out with it...I'm lazy. My bedroom floor was covered in clothes and guess what they are clean clothes. So I'm only half way done in there cuz I'm worn down and there are 2 girls living here and we have a lot of clothes. but my hope is that if I tackle this problem and I keep my house clean, LG will learn by example and keep her room clean (hey a girl can hope right?)

I had a blog planned for today but I will write it down somewhere and save it for another day. Last night I took LG with me to the viewing. It was closed casket so I took her up there. and I said "there is a man in that box....he was my cousin and his name was Patrick. The other day Patrick got really sick and now his body is broken and he died. Just like the bird you saw last year." "why, mommy? why is he died?" "His body and broken now....remember how I told you about running into the road after your chalk? If a car breaks your chalk we can buy new chalk. but if a car breaks you we can't buy a new you. Because you are special and you are the only LG in the world." So then we went on again about how now Patrick is broken and how special he was to us. And she got real sad and I thought she understood. Until this morning...this morning she wanted to call Dr. House to see if he could fix Patrick. I had to tell her that the doctors already tried to fix him but they couldn't. Then I tore a piece of paper apart and asked her if we could fix it. And of course we could not. I'm sorry LG, sorry that bodies don't last forever but we have to be happy about the time we had with him and that his life was special.

So I tried to knit yesterday but I couldn't concentrate so I took a nap instead. I've been busy all day and I have the viewing tonight ....maybe I can get some stitches in before bed. So I went to get the kindergardener(daycare kid not my LG) off the bus and it was raining so I was joking with him and put my arm thru his coat sleeve with his arm still in there and threw him up on my back. I was 75% of the way to the house when I fell and ripped open the knees of my pants and a little bit of the skin of my knees. All in front of the bus driver!!! The boy is fine, just 1 scrape no blood... my left knee is bleeding and I already have bad knees as it is. sigh we were having so much fun too. I don't know what is with the SO jeans from Kohl's I had two pair, the knees wore thru on the one and now I ripped thru the knees on the second...maybe I can knit a solution LOL

So today I had planned on trying to finish the stuffed cat and pig I had been knitting based on the pig on the front of this book. I'm figured I just have to modify the nose, ears and tail to make the pig look like a cat. But I have been so busy today. I aspire to become a baker and I am not very good at it Lol. I have a tip to share with you if you want to try your hand at baking. now this may seem like common sense but I'm not sure that it is. Ok so after you pour the batter out of the bowl into the baking pan, throw the mixer and the spreading spoon you used in the bowl and take 3 minutes to rinse it right now, before the batter has a chance to dry believe me you will appreciate it.

Unfortunately I just got a very sad phone call. My cousin Patrick whom I have not seen in about 8 years never woke up yesterday morning. I am currently in shock about it. The autopsy is not back yet so we are not sure exactly what happened. It is all very sad and I feel awful for my aunt because no one should ever have to lose a child. -bye

I've been trying to live by this -Don't settle. And I have come up with some guidelines so you can follow this mantra too.1.Do settle on the shirt you're going to wear today-some days it feels like no shirt is the right shirt, just put one on and go or you will be late for work2. Don't settle on the shirt you're buying today- if you don't LOVE it in the store then we both know it will just end up in the back of the closet next to that sweater you got for christmas 2 years ago.3. Do settle when it comes to picking your top myspace friends4. Don't settle when picking out a boy/girlfriend/wife/husband-life is too short for lousy boyfriends.Well I'm not a professional journalist so that's all I can think of LoL. just remember this...If the decision is going to effect your life for more than a week make sure it's a choice you can live with that long! k? love ya bye

My purse is finished!!! Today when I was pinning the lining to the knitting in preparation of the sewing I was so nervous. I spent so much time knitting this beautiful piece of fabric together and it would only take a few seconds on the sewing machine to ruin it. but I actually think it came out pretty well. The only complaint I could make is it is a bit too small.

yep I blocked. I know I know bout time right? well I had to because of the cables the purse was trying to be so narrow and I need it wider. I keep a lot of stuff in my purse. ok? there I said it. oh and just as a side note....that's my mom's kitchen table. Sorry mom I love ya but I don't love your table cloth.

This morning, I got up and dressed LG and myself and totally forgot to wear green! Luckily she has green on her skirt and I let the kids pinch me cuz I didn't have a speck of green on me but everyone else did! I'm still chugging away on the strap it seems like it will take forever... The pattern says at least 30 inches tho I thing I want a little more and I'm at 26" currently. Lots of stuff going on in the next couple of months, my sister is moving back in town, we have 3 b-day parties to go to and LG's dance recital is quickly approaching.

I finished the main part of my purse last night. This is so exciting. I keep picking it up and putting it against my face lol. I am currently working on the strap I am using my size 6 dpn's because the size 8 straights are way too long to work 15 sts on. I can't wait until the purse is finished I keep thinking about how I am going to work the fabric for the inside. I am in LOVE :)

last Sunday it snowed. By 8 am monday morning there where 7 1/2 inches of snowed. LG played in it on mon. tues and wed. Today she is running around outside in just a short sleeved tee. What a difference a week can make.

I like to have 2 projects going at once...if I get bored with one I can put it down and work on the other...So I currently have the purse knitted flat on 8's and a glove knitted in the round of size 3 dpn's. I love this picture... I keep stopping every inch or so and shoving my hand in the glove and judging it and admiring it. I have dubbed it "the practice glove" because it's not going to anyone I am just learning the skill. But I am having loads of fun!

I promised to come back and tell you all how I feel about Ravelry...Well here goes 1. I still can't spell in on my first try...and I have trouble pronouncing it too. 2. otherwise it's...AWESOME. I spend about an hour a day on there at least. It has a spot for all your projects and then you can take pictures of the yarn and link it to the project you used it on, so when members see a pic of your project they can say "oh I love that yarn..I wonder what it is?" and then figure it out. Then you can add the pattern so these other members can make one for themselves. It is truly a great website/ online community , if you're a knitter I enthustiastically urge you to join. The wait is so worth it.

My first frogging...Matt's 2.0 hat, turns out that I was knitting through the back of the stitch and you're supposed to knit through the front. So I had 23 rows of twisted stockinette. Oh well, there is a first for everything. I have gotten pretty good at making yarn balls tho.

tho the past 3 years should have been the happiest of my life, I had a beautiful baby growing into a beautiful girl and was falling for the love of my life...I spent alot of that time in a dark hole. I was so depressed that I cut off everyone from my life. It was just the 3 of us, I never called anyone, I never went anywhere. I just stayed at home with my family. Recently (with the help of some wonderful medication) I have been able to stand on my feet. I have reached out and joined a knitting group, something I would have never been brave enough to do 6 months ago. and I have been working to fix one of my friendships, and I finally went to go see her yesterday. I am so happy now. I really do like the person I am today.

idk if because of the way I sit when I'm knitting or if I spent too much time on the floor with the kids or maybe it's my shoes but my back is killing me. So last night when I got home I did some yoga poses, a guy on the Ellen show earlier that day said were good for stretching your back. I did child's pose, then cat stretch, back to child's cat one more time and finished with a downward dog. It all took about 10 minutes and I feel great. I didn't even take any aspirin!

so this week I tried to fix Matt's Iphone case but now he wants it less dense cuz the phone is overheating in it o well. I finished the monkey he is kinda cute and just laying on the coffee table waiting for football season (hmm maybe I should make him a football) I'm slowly working on Matt's hat but it's boring stockinette stitch for 9 inches AHHH! and I started a purse for me which I am really excited about. I am using this gorgeous charcoal color. it has 5 cables so when it gets to a cable row I have to pay attention and go slow so I don't mess up. Everyone keeps asking me when Ella's blanket will be done...I put it away . maybe it will be done in November okay? gotta problem with that? then you can knit it yourself :)

We don't have a dishwasher so in our home Hubby cooks the dinner and I wash the dishes...except on Thursdays. on Thursday he has a raid on WoW so I make dinner on that night...I have burnt that dinner every time this month. tonight it was mac and cheese, last week I cooked frozen pizza with the cardboard, the week before I burned the Bertolli. What's the phrase? something like if anyone could make water burn it would be me.

I was saving this for a day I had nothing to blog about...so on sprout (it's a kids network that they have fallen in love with at work) they have a morning show called The Sunny Side Up Show and they play 15 minute segments of cartoons and they have a LIVE show ...for lack of a better phrase...surrounding those cartoons. Anyway you can go online and send an email to the bird puppet "Chica" and the human host MIGHT read it on live TV. So I did that and Kevin read our email about 2 minutes before the show was over last Wednesday. It was awesome!

I spend the whole weekend cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, knitting and cleaning. I finished the monkey late last night...I need to work on my sewing skills so that I can sew these animals I knit together.

LG has dance on Mondays...it's 45 minutes long so of course I spend my time there knitting..I know those other mom's are like "umm, what is this 20ish yr old girl doing knitting here?" lol. Whatever I'm happy!

So I woke up really late today and spent the day cleaning (it's a sunday ritual) and knitting...I forgot to eat! No lie I had poptarts at noon and a sprite and a cup of coffee that's it. At around 7pm I was trying to work on the monkey with the size 3 dpn's and I noticed my hands shaking...so it took me like 5 mins to figure it out and then I went and made some Bertolli (uumm, ummm...good). And I am eating it while telling you how silly I am LOL.

So I have started 7 projects...none of which were for me. so a lipgloss holder pattern was added to ravelry yesterday and I made it right then as soon as I saw it. The funniest part is I wanted to use the gray that I'm using for Matt's hat so I just picked up the other end and whipped out a gloss case I love it!!! Here's the pattern....http://knittingintheyarnbarn.blogspot.com/2009/02/ribbed-lip-balm-holder.html....I modified it by making it skinnier and longer to fit my favorite lipgloss.

I think the snooze button is playing tricks on me...It's my fault I have the alarm set to 40 mins before I have to leave and I expect myself to get me and a grumpy four year old ready in that amount of time...it comes down to this if I push the snooze button I get 9 extra minutes of sleep but I lose the time I need to put on my face lotion, put in my contacts and fix my hair. This morning my dream convinced me to push the snooze button..I swear this is the truth...so today is a glasses day. Sigh

At first blush I think Ravelry is very cool I posted pictures of all my projects and all of the yarn in my stash..I can see where the website could lose it's appeal after a month or so...I really like the queue part where you find projects you would like to make later. I think they need to update the needle chart, it has all the different sizes and needle types but I would like to be able to put the brand and material of the needle in there. And when I post a project I would like to pick straights, circs or dpns.....

So I applied for my ravelry invite on Friday and forgot about it until I received the invitation today. Wow is there a lot to do on there or what? I didn't feel like uploading all my info onto it right now since I pretty much did that on here yesterday but I'm gonna give ravelry a chance and share my feelings about on here.

feeling #1 I don't know how to spell ravelry off the top of my head, I have it on my clipboard and every time I wanna "say" it I just ctrlV......maybe if I understood why it's called that things I could learn how to spell it

So I started the monkey on sunday and the pattern told me to cast on 6 and then KFB every stitch...say what? kfb? so I googled it "yes I googled" and I found some still shots trying to explain it to me but I didn't understand so I then spent about an hour teaching myself how to KFB...well I finally got it! and I was so excited that I ran around the room shouting that I was a KFB master!! I am so proud lol

for those who don't know kfb means to knit through the front of the stitch and then knit into the back of the stitch.I make my knit stitches in the back so it took me a while to figure how to knit in the front...

I started a new hat for Matt in the round this time...luckily I have a size 6 circ and size 6 dpns. I am using the same yarn as last time which is Caron simply soft in heather gray. I'm also a member of a knitting group on cafemom that is hosting a Knit-along for february. Everyone who participates will be making a stuffed monkey. I am using this pattern http://knittedtoybox.blogspot.com/2008/04/monkey-moo.html I am going to knit him in redskin colors cuz I already had them in my stash and as I mentioned I can't afford to go buy some brown yarn...he will not have a t-shirt on either.

As mentioned I used size 6 needles to knit the pieces flat and then seemed them together later. LG decided she wanted a lamb that was mainly pink with white accents instead of mainly white with gray accents...I made her choose from my stash the budget it tight this week cuz of the car threatening to fall apart.....both yarns are from JoAnn's beautiful line.

I finished nephews hat on 2-10. I sewed it together (no I didn't block it I haven't attempted blocking yet) and then used the white yarn from the leg warmers to back stitch two star outlines on the front so it roughly resembles a cowboys logo. I finished Ella's leg warmers on 2-14. I started a stuffed lamb on 2-11 flat on size 6 straights, which quickly got annoying because I had a 5 inch wide project between 2 16 inch long needles. i bought a set of bamboo dpn's in size 6 and knit flat on those. I finished the lamb on 2-14 also.

I started a hat for my nephew on 1-20 I followed the same pattern as the newborn hat but with the 9-12 month size..still on size 3 straights. I kept messing up I didn't have a long enough cast on tail twice, forgot to rib once and messed up my ribbing once before I got it going well. I made socks for Ella's doll. This was my first attempt at knitting in the round.... I used size 3 dpn's they are metal cuz metal is the cheapest....I had 3 failed attempts before I figured it out. and the toes are still wrong because I am not good at kitchener stitch. I then used this knowledge and the dpn's to make Ella some legwarmers for dance class, I used this project to learn how to cable.

I continued to plow away on Ella's blanket. I knit a tiny newborn hat flat on size 3 straights to practice hat making because Hubby's hat came out so bad. Then I knit a case his Iphone which came out too wide. After the first awful hat I learned about gauge and swatches... I knit the case flat on the size 3 straights so I knew how big it would come out. The case came out too big because I overestimated how wide I had to make it.

I spent most of December working on a blanket for Ella... it consists of 3 colors knitted flat on size 8 circs. The blanket is 270 sts wide and will be approx. 240 rows long. (as of 2-17-09 I'm not finished I am at row 180 and I put the blanket in time-out to think about what it has done) I also attempted to make a hat for Matt. I knit the hat flat on size 5 straights. I did 6 rows of K2 P2 ribbing and then about 6 more inches in just stockinette. It didn't turn out :( so I threaded a drawstring through it and it is now a bag for my knitting accessories...scissors, row counters, tapestry needles etc.

Since I have only been knitting for 2 1/2 months, I'm still a newb..I am learning new things about knitting often and will be posting my struggles and triumphs on here to share with you. I am going to post quite a few entries today to cover most of what happened in the last 2 months so I have them archived. Just so you know sometimes the posts maybe about my job or my family and not particularly about knitting, but most will focus on the main topic.